Clinton cites Coralville shooting in call for more restrictive gun laws

CORALVILLE - Citing the shooting death this summer of a woman inside a Coralville mall, a somber Hillary Clinton called on her supporters Tuesday to make guns a 'voting issue like the other side does.”

During an appearance at an outdoor rally in Coralville, Clinton focused on ending gun violence that she said claims about 90 American lives a day or nearly 33,000 a year, including 20-year-old Andrea Farrington of Cedar Rapids, who was attacked June 12 in the Coral Ridge Mall. The accused gunman, Alexander M. Kozak of North Liberty, is set for an April trial.

Farrington's death was cited by Shelly Kerr, a Coralville mother who introduced Clinton to a crowd her campaign estimated to be 500 supporters at S.T. Morrison Park.

'Instead of becoming numb, I have become angry,” Kerr said, adding that Iowans 'should not have to worry about our kids getting shot when we send them to school. I cannot be a bystander any longer.”

Clinton called for 'common-sense solutions” such as comprehensive background checks, ending the unique immunity that gun manufacturers and dealers have from civil liability and 'closing the loopholes that let guns end up in the wrong hands.”

Her comments coincided with a new TV ad airing in Iowa that asks 'How many people have to die before we actually act, before we come together as a nation?”

The 30-second ad is part of a previously announced ad buy in Iowa and New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, a RealClearPolitics.com poll average has her chief rival for the 2016 Democratic nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, up by 1 percentage point.

Without mentioning him by name, Clinton rejected his mixed record on gun legislation, including the idea that firearms legislation should be left to state legislatures and his vote for immunity from civil liability for gun dealers and manufacturers.

'Now, some people say, ‘You know, this is an urban problem.' They say, ‘Hey, this happens somewhere else,' ” Clinton said. 'But that's not true. It happens in small towns, it happens in suburbs, it happens in rural communities. We just heard Shelly talk about the young woman who in Coralville who was killed at the mall where she worked.”

Gun violence 'is a danger … a threat everywhere in our country,” Clinton said.

She asserted the majority of Americans agree with the need for more restrictive gun laws. However, a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that a majority of Americans thought Democratic proposals were 'out of the mainstream.”

Republicans were quick to point out Tuesday that this is another case of Clinton's shifting position to appease - or attract - more liberal voters. In 2008, Clinton took a more moderate tone and was critical of then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Despite her 'wholehearted support” for the Second Amendment in the 2008 primary, 'Clinton is embracing the Democrat Party's shift to the extreme left on the Second Amendment with talk of a national gun buyback program and unilateral executive action,” said the Republican National Committee's Fred Brown. 'Hillary Clinton's hypocrisy on guns reinforces that she will do or say anything to get elected and that she is well outside the mainstream on the Second Amendment.”

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who also is seeking the Democratic nomination, weighed in Tuesday, promising to use executive authority to reduce gun violence to meet his goal of cutting national deaths from gun violence in half within 10 years. He offered a seven-point plan that included ending gun manufacturers' immunity, disarm and prosecute domestic abusers who break gun laws, ban so-called cop-killer ammunition and require 'responsible storage” of guns at home.